Return to office full-time or work elsewhere, Musk tells Tesla staff

ELON MUSK has demanded Tesla staff ditch home working and hit out at his HR department for living in separate states to the factories they run.

Employees of the electric carmaker are now expected to spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in the office or be fired. A letter sent by Mr Musk to Tesla staff on Tuesday and leaked online said: “This is less than we ask of factory workers. If there are particularly exceptional contributors for whom this is impossible, I will review and approve those exceptions directly.”

He appeared to directly address one particular staffer, citing an example of a person “being responsible for Fremont factory human relations, but having your office in another state.” In response to the leak, Mr Musk said remote workers should “pretend to work somewhere else”.

Tesla’s demand for a return to the office comes after its Shanghai staff slept on their factory floor as part of efforts to restart production during a Covid-19 lockdown in April. Local authorities had ordered an end to commuting while public health officials struggle with a Covid outbreak in the eastern Chinese city.

Tech companies began cracking down on remote work last summer before a movement dubbed the “Great Resignation” began forcing employers back to the negotiating table as staff quit for jobs with better working conditions.

Google told its staff in March that they were expected to end fully remote working in favour of spending at least three days a week in their nearest Google office.

Some staff reportedly said this was unfair, pointing to Google’s $256bn (£204bn) sales during 2021, an increase of nearly $75bn over the previous year.

At an internal meeting, one Google worker reportedly said: “Why is the RTO [return to office] policy not ‘Work from office when you want or when it makes sense to’?”

Tesla’s share price has climbed about 18pc over the past week and stands at $742. Mr Musk, who is buying social media site Twitter for $44bn, discontinued a $6.25bn margin loan secured against Tesla shares in May after securing $33bn of the required funds.